Flight planner

Open the planner

WhereFlight Plan button in the toolbar.

1. 01

   Click Flight Plan in the toolbar. The planner opens on the left with Departure and Arrival blocks. The Explore button opens the same planner on the Routes tab.

2. 02

   The header shows distance, time, cruise level and block fuel for the current plan, and the aircraft class next to the figures it affects.

3. 03

   New plan clears everything. Undo brings the plan back if you did not mean it. Clear empties only the route.

• SimBrief plans and plans opened from .fms files are left alone by New plan and Clear.
• Cmd+O or Ctrl+O opens a .fms file into the planner. Dropping one on the app does the same.

Departure and arrival

WhereDeparture and Arrival blocks in the planner.

1. 01

   Type an ICAO or a name and pick the departure, then the arrival. Each field has a clear button.

2. 02

   Pick a runway, or leave it on Any. The planner reads the wind at the airport and suggests the runway it favours, with a Use button.

3. 03

   The planner picks a SID, STAR and approach for you from the runways and the route, including the approach transition the STAR leads to. Pick your own and it stays.

4. 04

   An alternate is suggested with its distance from the arrival. Change it or clear it.

5. 05

   Swap starts the return leg over: a new route, cruise level, alternate and procedures, routed in one go.

Build the route

WhereEnroute box and the Auto route button.

1. 01

   Pick the aircraft class: Jet, Turboprop or Piston. It drives the cruise level, the climb and descent profile, the fuel estimate, and which airways the router uses.

2. 02

   Press Auto route. The planner finds the shortest airway path for your cruise level from the end of the SID to the start of the STAR.

3. 03

   Or type the route yourself: fixes and airways separated by spaces, for example SUGOL UL620 KEKIX. Leave it empty to fly direct. The line under the box counts the fixes and airways it understood and says why anything was skipped.

4. 04

   Change the cruise level with the pencil, or press Suggest for the planner's pick. A plan built by Auto route is routed again for the new level.

• Skipped items say why: not in the navigation database, an airway with no fix before or after it, an airway that does not connect the fixes either side, a one-way airway flown the wrong way, or a SID or STAR name in the route (those belong in the pickers).
• Free route airspace, where the airway table has gaps, is handled: Auto route adds direct legs between the published fixes instead of failing or detouring around it.
• The route on the map is one colour per SID, STAR and approach, with leg distance and course written on the line and procedure names on their legs. Waypoint labels thin out as you zoom out.
• Procedures are drawn the way the charts show them: DME arcs, course and radial intercepts, holds, procedure turns, and the missed approach dashed.
• Click any route waypoint or navaid for its planned altitude, frequency, bearing and distance from your aircraft.

Airway and level checks

WhereBanner under the route box, and the Check button.

If you type an airway at a level it is not published for, the planner says so under the route and shows the levels it allows. When your cruise altitude does not fit the route, or is odd where it should be even for your direction, an Adjust button fixes it in one click.

• The banner names the airway behind a limit: "L10 stops at FL250", "UN869 starts at FL245", "Eastbound flights use odd levels".
• When two airways never share a level it says so and points you to Remove, because no Adjust can help.

North Atlantic tracks

WhereTrack picker in the planner; North Atlantic tracks layer in the Layers panel.

1. 01

   Plan a crossing. The planner offers today's tracks with their levels, fixes, TMI number and remarks. Auto picks the best one for your route.

2. 02

   Pick a track and Auto route flies it from entry to exit. Picking a track moves the cruise onto that track's levels.

3. 03

   Or switch on the North Atlantic tracks layer and click a track on the map to route through it.

• The planner warns when your cruise level is not on the track.
• Tracks are published twice a day: Gander posts the eastbound set around 1300Z, Shanwick the westbound set around 2100Z. Between sets the planner keeps the last one, marked "Last published", so you can plan a morning crossing before the day's set is out. In the sim you can still fly it.

Vertical profile

WhereProfile button at the bottom of the planner, the flight plan bar, or the map button.

A strip under the map shows your planned climb, cruise and descent, top of climb and top of descent, procedure altitude restrictions, the terrain under the route, and the safe altitude for each leg and for the whole route. Hover the profile to see where that point is on the map.

• Climb and descent follow the aircraft class, so a piston profile looks nothing like a jet.
• The minimum safe altitude for the route sits in the header of the profile, and the leg-safe line follows the terrain.
• SimBrief plans use the same chart.

Daylight along the route

WhereLight section at the bottom of the planner.

The Light section shows day, twilight and night along the route for your takeoff time. Scrub the takeoff time, pick Now or Tomorrow, or set a goal: daylight all the way, night, a sunrise or sunset takeoff, a sunrise or sunset landing, and the planner finds the takeoff time for it.

Random destination, routes and weather

WhereRandom, Routes and Weather buttons in the planner header.

1. 01

   Random: choose a departure, then a flight length by time or distance and your aircraft class. Find a flight gives five destinations; Reroll gives five more. Filters: anywhere, domestic or international, custom scenery only, destination weather, VATSIM ATC online. Use as arrival puts one in the plan.

2. 02

   Routes: real-world routes flown between airports. Picking one fills both ends.

3. 03

   Weather: airports sorted by what is happening there right now, with counts per category: snow, icing, fog, low visibility, low ceiling, heavy rain, storms, severe, dust, wind, clear. Pick one and it becomes the arrival.

• The dice button in the planner is a shortcut to Random.
• A weather station that is not in your X-Plane install is marked "Not in X-Plane yet. File it on the Gateway".

Save to X-Plane and fly

WhereButtons at the bottom of the planner.

1. 01

   Save to X-Plane writes the plan as a .fms file into X-Plane's Output/FMS plans folder, ready for the default FMS or any add-on that reads it. The toast shows the file name.

2. 02

   Start at departure opens flight setup at the departure airport with the departure runway selected.

3. 03

   Show on map frames the whole route. The flight plan bar above the map lists every fix; click one to jump there.

• Plans are kept between launches.
• A SimBrief plan can be imported into the same map and profile. See SimBrief.

Load an online pilot's plan

WhereUse as my flight plan on a VATSIM or IVAO pilot card.

Switch on the VATSIM or IVAO layer, click a pilot, and press Use as my flight plan. Their filed route goes into the planner. Speed and level notes are dropped, a filed SID or STAR moves to the procedure pickers, and one line under the route lists what was changed, including any procedure that is not in your nav data.